First Images Released From Newest Landsat Earth Observation Satellite

Some of the first images released from the USGS from Landsat 8 gives us a look at the Colorado Front Range as well as an amazing view of last summer’s wildfire burn just west of Fort Collins, CO. About the first images… The natural-color images show the intersection of the United States Great Plains and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado. In the images, green coniferous forests in the mountains stretch down to the brown plains with Denver and other cities strung south to north. LDCM acquired the images at about 1:40 p.m. EDT March 18. The satellite’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments observed the scene simultaneously. The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., processed the data.